After a short mini bus ride back to Guatemala City, we jumped on to the bus to Flores, armed with jumpers in case it was cold. Unfortunately, jumpers weren´t enough and we found ourselves shivering in our seats and praying that the journey would go quickly. It wasn´t to be, and we arrived virtually sleepless in Flores early the next morning. As soon as we got off the bus, we were surrounded by taxi drivers offering to take us straight to the Tikal ruins. As we wanted to dump our stuff at a hostel and get a couple of hours rest [View Full Entry]

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As soon as we stepped off the chicken bus in Antigua, we knew we were going to love this little colonial city. The streets were buzzing with energy, and many of the local women were wondering around in traditional dress which just added even more charm to it. We head through the markets and into the centre to find the Jungle Party hostel, which again we loved instantly. It had a great atmosphere, with people lounging around watching films on the big tv, chill out music on in the backround, and everyone chatting about their trips and getting on really well. [View Full Entry]

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So, as you can probably guess, this bus trip was pretty epic. We decided to get the later bus which meant we had to stay a night in San Salvador, mainly because we really didn´t want to be wondering around the streets of Managua at the wee hours of the morning after meeting 3 different groups of people who had all been held up by guns and machetes there. So we squeezed onto a little colectivo at around 8am from Granada and head off with our fingers crossed that nothing bad would happen. LUCKILY... we managed to get through Managua with [View Full Entry]

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So on the Sunday we finally head to Granada, where some of Frank's friends were flying down to meet us. We arrived to find a huge cowboy festival going on, with the streets full of horses and lots of DJs blasting out music while locals danced around in their cowboy gear. We wondered around the streets for a while and walked up to the Lake with a great view of Ometepe Island but unfortunately tons of sandflies so we didn't stay long. After a while though, the strong sun and hundreds of smelly horses forced us back to the hostel where [View Full Entry]

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With yet another early start from Liberia, we finally made it to the Nicaraguan border. With a huge queue, we managed to blag our way to the front claiming that Poppy's arm was hurting and she needed to see a doctor. We then took our final few steps in Costa Rica and made our way to immigration control on the other side. We had never been so happy to get our exit stamps from a country. Nicaragua's immigration took a while too but we didn't mind, we were just so happy to have left Costa Rica. We managed to barter down [View Full Entry]

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Yet another early start, and a very stressful one at that. We barely made our bus despite staying just a few minutes drive from the Coca Cola bus station, and collapsed into our seats just as the doors were closing. It was a few hours drive to Puntarenas, where we had to get off the bus and onto a ferry to cross the sea over to the Nicoya Peninsula. It was a beautiful day and the water was very still so we didn't really want to get back onto the hot bus - with fake aircon vents - and travel another [View Full Entry]

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We woke up early to catch our bus, praying that there would be no more delays and we might actually be able to get out of Puerto Viejo. It was raining hard but we managed to get to the bus station just in time to jump on a shuttle bus to the port where we would get on our boat to Tortuguero. With the usual Costa Rican laid back attitude, we didn't end up leaving until about half an hour later and were starting to think we might miss our boat and be stuck there another night. However, luckily - even [View Full Entry]

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So, the four of us rocked up in Puerto Viejo, Stu and Poppy with the plan to move on that day or the following morning to Tortuguero to see the turtles laying their eggs. We headed straight to world famous Rocking J´s, a hostel which looks more like a refugee camp with tents and hammocks but is right on the beach (a plus at the time...little did we know what lay ahead) and a great place to meet people. Puerto Viejo was a cute little beach town, lots of hippies hanging out on the beach...but we stayed most of our time [View Full Entry]

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Not much to say about here. We arrived, decided it wasn´t so great and would leave the next day. 4 days later....we were still there. After trying to leave every day and failing we finally realised what the problem was and figured out the only way to solve our dilema. The problem: 2 americans, Frank and Annelies. We just had a little too much fun chilling at the beach and partying at night together. The solution: To take them with us wherever we went. So, Bocas del Toro = Sunbathing, Red Frog Beach (with no Red Frogs), The best sandcastle we [View Full Entry]

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After getting up ridiculously early and being tugged by a small speed boat to the island where immigration was (the engine failed the previous evening), we eventually had our passports stamped and were legitimately in Panama after 6 days of officially being nowhere. We jumped into a small boat and head for the mainland, a little sad to be leaving paradise. The mainland wasn't quite what we expected. A small building with a few men sitting around outside, a plane wreck, and a ''toilet'' - nothing more than a few planks of wood over the water surrounded by corrogated iron - [View Full Entry]

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